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Chris Wall Tainted Angel |
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. Track List
1. Turns To Tears
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(Cold Spring Records) "I've always had this
sound in my head. It's part starched shirts, Black Gold Resistols and
pressed Wranglers and part ball caps and Levi's with holes in the knees.
I've always thought that a great country song was a story set somewhere
between exuberance and desperation. Somewhere between the hopeful, eager
breath of a young musician and the weary sigh of the veteran road
warrior getting on that bus to face one more highway.
So think of these songs as "torch songs."
Some of them are torches carried, some are torches passed. Some are used
to light the way, and some...hell, some are just used to burn down the
honky tonks." - Chris Wall
Chris described his vision of what this CD
is to a "T." Chris Wall's best known accomplishment outside of Texas, is
probably the fact that he penned Confederate Railroad's 1993 hit "Trashy
Women." However, inside Texas he is a widely known, popular figure-
highly regarded by his peers and loved by his fans. Part poet, part
cowboy, and part honky tonker, Chris blends all these elements into his
well crafted songs and delivers them in a rich, warm baritone.
In helping to bring to life his vision of
what he wanted this CD to be, he enlisted the help of the award winning
Texas band Reckless Kelly, who back Chris with their impeccable
harmonies and musicianship.
"Turns To Tears", a honky tonk shuffle, is
one of the best drinking songs going, though it's more a preponderance
of the effects various alcoholic beverages have on a person, as in "ain't
it strange the way Jack Daniels turns to tears..."
Chris tells his tale of old friends growing
up in "Three Across", him at the wheel, the woman he loved sitting in
the middle, holding hands with his best friend, reflecting on the past
and how much things have changed and at the same time how much they
didn't.
"God's Own Jukebox" a song of redemption-
about man who's reached the point in his life where it's time to turn
from the Honky Tonk Church to the Church of God. "Tainted Angel" has a
western flair, where he explains to his woman that he'll be there for
her always on the road of life, but he's not perfect and "St.
Christopher", he ain't.
"I Never Got Over Losing You" is a song
about losing the one he loves, but it's not the "tear in your beer"
variety- it actually has a bouncy and highly catchy melody. "The Empty
Seat beside Me" starts off with a few bars of gorgeous acapella harmony
by Chris and Reckless Kelly, and is another with a western melody, with
some outstanding fiddle work by Cody Braun. Here Chris tells the woman
he loves he "don't want to ride that lonesome highway anymore" and asks
her to please fill the empty seat beside him.
"Big Blue Teardrops" is a swinging honky
tonker about what the women he loved left behind when she left him.
"Waltz To Cheyenne" is a lovely western flavored ballad about a rambling
man who finds himself broken down in Cheyenne where he meets a woman
that stops to help him out. He finds he's fallen in love with the woman,
and pledges to to settle down- if only she'd say the word.
"Half Of What Killed Elvis" is a raucous
honky tonk rave-up, where the hero says he's not insane- he doesn't want
it all, that he'd be very happy to take just half of everything that
finally did in Elvis. "No Sweat" is a straight up barn burning rocker
about falling in love. In "Dylan Montana's Last Ride", the cowboy/poet
comes out once again with the tale of a rodeo cowboy that ready to call
it quits and finally settle down, and calls the woman he loves an asks
her if she'd be willing to give it a try.
"Chris Wall is a cowboy savior/hero/poet who
with his words and music gives us redemption from the atrocities of this
illusion that is presently known as country music." - Ray Wylie
Hubbard
I couldn't have said it better, Ray.
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AnnMarie
Harrington Take Country Back April 2002